So engrossed were they in this pleasurable acrimony that neither noticed the state of extreme excitement and nervousness that held the other members of the party in thrall.
Robin had not been told of the plot, his betrothed wisely considering him to have too great a sense of propriety to lend himself to the scheme; but on his remarking that they were all remarkably edgy that night, he was assured that they were all breathless with excitement at the prospect of the evening’s entertainment.
It was indeed to be a magnificent affair, for the evening was to include a most spectacular firework display, besides music and dancing.
Of Captain Bladen there was no sign, but this was not surprising, for even now he should be setting out in a hired chaise to meet them, they hoped, with a special licence in his pocket.
All had been arranged in a series of notes, conveyed to Georgiana by an infatuated footman under the impression that he was helping his young mistress to carry on a clandestine romance.
The Captain was to meet them at the side gate which he had ensured would be unlocked. It had been a rush – but Georgy and Anastasia had, they were sure, done everything that ought to be done.
But as the time for the fireworks drew closer Louisa began to grow even more nervous, starting at the least noise, her eyes round and terrified.
Anastasia tried to calm her. “You still want to go on with it, don’t you?”
“Oh, if only I can be sure that I am doing the right thing!” She clasped her hands together convulsively. “I keep thinking that at any moment Mama may come upon me and drag me away, never to see my adored William again!”
Ana looked at her in exasperation. “How could she — she has not got a ticket of admission! Besides, they can have no idea of the scheme! Now do not be such a goose for all will go perfectly, I assure you.”
She smiled reassuringly and turned to her cousin. “Georgy, are you sure you can direct us to this gate?” she whispered so that Louisa could not hear. “Will it not be locked?”
“All arranged,” hissed Georgy inelegantly from the side of her mouth. “I will give you a nod when you are to turn into the path that will take you there.”
“What are you whispering about – what is it?”
“Oh nothing, Louisa. Only wondering at the time passing so slowly!”
Louisa pressed a folded paper into Anastasia’s hand. “Take this letter, and send it when I am gone. Oh, they will be so very angry with me!”
Robin turned and regarded their conspiratorial faces suspiciously. “Here, what are you three plotting? Mischief, I’ll be bound!”
“No such thing! We were just saying that the fireworks must start soon. Is it not exciting? I have never seen them before, though Louisa has. Have you, Georgy?”
“Yes, several times, but this will be a greater spectacle than any. Come, let us beg Mama to allow Robin to escort us into the gardens to view them more closely.”
Lady Dunford, still engrossed in her argument, looked at them doubtfully; but reflecting that they could not come to harm if they stayed together, gave her permission.
“But you are to stay together all the time, mind! No wandering about alone. Robin, I trust you to take care of them!”
Sir Montagu, unobserved among the crowds, had been watching the party for such a chance as this. Outside, it would be easier to detach Anastasia from her friends, but he had laid plans in case of failure – a servant was bribed to hand her a note, purporting to be from Lord Silverfield, and asking her to meet him in one of the arbours.
He did not think she would resist this, having drawn his own conclusions from her continued coldness to himself, and her manner to Lord Silverfield.
When he saw the little party get up and go out into the grounds, he followed them in the hope that his ruse would not be needed.
For some time they strolled about, Georgy and Robin arm in arm, and the other two girls arm in arm behind them, along the crowded paths lit with fairy lights and illuminated by bursts of fireworks.
Sir Montagu trailed them at a distance. After a while he saw Georgiana turn her head and say something gaily to her cousin, but her face, unseen by Robin, was pulled into a grimace of meaning and she nodded her head towards a smaller pathway leading off, away from the fireworks, to the right.
The two girls slipped away down the pathway, leaving the betrothed pair to go on.
He stood, puzzled, for a moment, and then darted after them.
It was quite some time before Robin, diverted by Georgy’s prattle and cries of delight at each new burst of fireworks noticed the absence of the other two.
‘Oh, we have just lost sight of them in the crush!” said Georgiana. “We will go back the way we came, and I am sure they will be looking up into the sky and not noticing our absence in the least!”
She laughed, and, reassured, he turned back with her to retrace their steps.
* * * *
Lord Silverfield came late to Vauxhall. He was drawn there by Anastasia’s presence, but what good it would do him to see her flirt with Carstares or any other of her admirers when he was pledged to marry Louisa, he could not think.
He wanted desperately to speak to her once more – and yet felt that he had no expectation of pleasure in what she would say to him if he did. He had heard something today that might, had he heard it only a few weeks ago, have changed the course of his whole life; but now it was all too late.
But still, drawn like a moth to the flame, he had come to walk about the crowded gardens looking for her.
He had begun to think it hopeless when he espied Lady Dunford sitting beside a small, plump woman whom he recognised after a moment as the fiery Mrs Carstares.
He pushed his way towards them through the crowds, and came face to face with Miss Dunford and Mr Carstares, approaching from a different direction.
“Oh! Lord Silverfield!” exclaimed Georgiana, starting and flushing a guilty red.
He looked down at her in surprise. What the devil had got into her that she should look so startled at the sight of him?
Georgiana, rushing defensively into speech, expected him at any moment to demand Louisa or Anastasia’s whereabouts. “Lord Silverfield, I hope you mean to congratulate us!” And she took her surprised betrothed by the arm.
“Congratulate you?” he repeated, looking from one to the other.
“Why, upon our betrothal, of course! I made sure you would have heard of it by now. It was all settled between us ages ago, but we have only now persuaded Mama to relent.”
He stared at them blankly, and then focused on Robin. “But I thought that you and Anastasia Derwent .....” he began, and then stopped suddenly.
Robin looked a little self-conscious. “You need not fear to speak before Miss Dunford, Sir. She knows all!”
She laughed indulgently. “Indeed I know that you fancied yourself in love first with Anastasia, and I am sure I am not surprised, so pretty as she is! But I am glad that you found out your mistake!”
He covered her hand with his own. “So too am I!”
Lord Silverfield pulled his stunned brain together. This must have been what Carstares was telling Anastasia that day – and she had looked happy! She had not minded and he had been wrong, like the fool he was, to suppose that she loved him! He felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart.
Then he remembered that he was betrothed to Louisa Derwent, and his heart filled with lead again. “I do not see either of the Misses Derwent,” he said, looking about him. “I thought they were to be here with you tonight?”
By now, Georgiana reflected, the eloping pair should be well on their way, and Anastasia on her way back. She relaxed a little. “We all went to look at the fireworks, but got separated in the crush! We quite expected to see them here before us -but I daresay they will be here at any moment, for the fireworks seem to have stopped and the dancing is about to begin.”
Robin looked worried. “Perhaps we should turn back again to look for them. After all
, your Mama did entrust them to my care!”
“Allow me!” said Lord Silverfield. “I will find them and escort them to Lady Dunford.”
He waited for no reply, but strode off purposefully. Georgiana, watching his tall, athletic figure moving through the crowds, thought fancifully that it was as if some wild creature – a leopard, a black leopard – had got loose amongst that decorous company.
Chapter Twenty-three
Anastasia, hurrying her companion along the dark, deserted pathway, was unconscious of the irony that the very night of Louisa’s elopement should also be the one on which Sir Montagu had plotted to abduct her.
Louisa hung back a little, now that the crowds and lights lay behind them, and reiterated at intervals: “Oh, I do hope I’m doing the right thing! Mama will kill me!”
“Mama will not be there to kill you, and by the time you next see her you will have a husband to protect you.”
“Dear William!” sighed Louisa. “Oh – but what if he is not there? Perhaps he has mistaken the hour, or the gateway. . .”
“Or the night?” suggested Anastasia sarcastically.
The lanterns bordering the pathway had become more widely spaced, and then stopped altogether, and their way was now lit only by the occasional flare of a firework, and the fitful glare of the moon.
“My clothes and . ...”
“I dispatched everything you need for a few days in a parcel to Captain Bladen’s lodgings. Now do stop chattering, Louisa! Everything is going to be perfectly all right!”
She hurried Louisa along. “You will soon be safely on your way, and I will be back with Lady Dunford complaining of having lost everyone in the crowd!”
“At last, there is the gate. I had not realised it was so far!”
A dark shape loomed out of the darkness, and they shrieked and clung to one another.
“Ssh!” whispered Captain Bladen. “It’s me!”
Louisa cast herself into his arms and sobbed in an excess of overwrought nerves and relief.
He looked rather helplessly at Anastasia over her head, and patted her back soothingly.
“Is the carriage here?” asked Anastasia.
“Yes. I am driving myself for the first stage – I thought it would make less talk. We will go on by hired post-chaise. And I have sent a messenger on to my friend, so we will be expected.”
He added awkwardly: “Trust me to do what is right by your cousin!”
“Niece,” she said automatically. “And I do. I hope you will be very happy! Now, if you are sure that you can manage, I had best hurry back.”
Louisa lifted her head and gave her a watery smile. “Yes, I am quite all right now – do hurry back before it is noticed that we are not to be found!”
She looked doubtfully along the dark pathway to where the first faint gleams of lanterns could be seen in the distance, glimmering through the bushes.
“We will watch you along the path till the turning – you will be safe enough there,” said the Captain. “Then we will go.” He took her hand and kissed it. “Thank you for all you have done!”
“Yes, I don’t know what we would have done without you and dear Georgiana!” said Louisa.
“Neither do I!” said Anastasia on the ghost of a laugh, and ran lightly off by the way they had come.
At the bend in the path she turned and waved. The dark figures by the gateway waved back and turned away.
A feeling of satisfaction filled her breast..... except, whatever would Lord Silverfield do now? If he ever discovered her part in this he would think that she had done it from spite!
But time enough to worry about that when she was safely back with Lady Dunford.
At this moment Sir Montagu, hardly able to believe his luck, stepped out of his concealment and dealt her a neatly calculated blow on the back of her head. She sank to the ground and lay insensible on the gravel.
“What a despicable thing to do to so much beauty,” he smiled gently to himself. Then, hastily looking about him, he bent and picked up her unconscious form and began to carry her back the way she had just come.
He was amused at the scene he had just witnessed. He had recognised Louisa’s military suitor, and the rest was easy to guess. The thought of the double blow to Lord Silverfield pleased him immensely.
The woman he had to marry eloped, and the girl he wanted – or Sir Montagu was no judge – abducted and ruined.
Full of satisfaction, he laid down his burden by the gate and peered out. The lane was empty, but it was early yet. His hired ruffians would be arriving shortly expecting to have to wait, and here he was with the prize before them!
Anastasia moaned and stirred a little. He took his handkerchief and a length of cord, and tied and gagged her firmly.
There was the sound of a carriage in the lane and after peering out cautiously he went out to speak to the two men on the box.
A shadow detached itself from the darkness and crept to the still form of the girl lying on the grass, kneeling beside her and trying vainly to undo the knots that bound her wrists.
There was a quick step and an exclamation, and Sir Montagu had pounced on the figure, dragging it forward towards the carriage lamps.
“Kitty!” he exclaimed, his face livid with anger, “What do you here?”
Her face was gaunt, the eyes huge and haunted. “What do you here, Sir Montagu? – that is more the question!”
He flung her away from him in disgust. “No concern of yours. Take yourself off!”
The bully at the horses’ heads looked measuringly at the shrinking figure. “I could dispose of the wench, if you’re needful of getting shut other,” he suggested.
“Pah! She is nothing!” He grasped her wrist, so that she cried out in pain, and looked threateningly at her. “How came you here?”
“I . . I overheard you plotting with these – ” she gestured. “And I could not stand by and see you ruin another innocent girl as you ruined me! I was meaning to plead with you, for the sake of our unborn child, to help me, but I see it is of no use!”
“Ah, but there is a world of difference between you and this lady — for she is a lady! And who knows, I might even marry her in the end. As for you, your place is in the stews, and the sooner you return to them, the better!”
She gave a piteous cry and would have clung to his arm, but he dealt her a hard blow with his clenched fist that sent her tumbling into oblivion in the dust.
He smoothed down his sleeve where she had clutched it, unmoved. “Time is passing. You know your instructions?” he said to the two men.
“Aye,” said the man on the box laconically. “Get the girl and put her in, Jem,” he directed.
“No!” snapped Sir Montagu as the sturdy Jem obeyed. “I’ll do it.”
He picked up the unconscious girl and put her into the carriage, then carefully locked the door and pocketed the key.
“Right, away with you – and stop for nothing! I will overtake you very shortly.”
Without more ado they drove off. He gazed after them, reflecting that he had consigned the girl he loved – as much as it was in his nature to love anyone — to the care of two of the most unscrupulous ruffians in the town. Then he dismissed the thought; they were being paid too highly to take any chances.
He stepped over Kitty’s senseless body, and walked swiftly back towards the distant sounds of music and revelry.
There was the sound of brisk steps approaching, and he drew into the concealing bushes at the path’s edge.
A tall, dark figure strode by, and he had no difficulty in recognising Lord Silverfield in spite of the darkness; his height and the way he walked – or rather, strode — were too distinctive.
He waited until the footsteps had died away before emerging. If his Lordship was seeking either Miss Derwent he was out of luck!
Tonight Anastasia would be alone and helpless in his power. An unpleasant smile curled his lips as he hastened on, intent on establishing his alibi so that he could follow
her as quickly as he could.
* * * *
As the ancient berline containing Anastasia slowed to take the corner a dark shape flitted out from the shadows, and, unseen by the two men on the box, swung itself up behind the carriage as it passed.
The driver, unaware of his passenger, whipped up his horses and set out at a rattling pace.
Chapter Twenty-four
Lady Dunford was becoming worried about the continued absence of Anastasia and Louisa. The fireworks had long since finished, and everyone had drifted back for the dancing.
Georgy too was now feeling the strain of waiting, for Ana should long since have returned. She wondered if something had gone wrong — but what? Even if by some mischance Captain Bladen had not been at the gate to meet them, they would surely have returned by now?
She bit her lip. For the first time it occurred to her that if their scheme did succeed, her Mama would be held to blame to some extent for not chaperoning Louisa better, and her eyes filled with tears.
Her Mama, noticing this, patted her kindly on the hand. “There, my dear — don’t fret! They have taken a wrong turning, I’ll be bound. I look to see them coming at any moment.”
Lord Silverfield came back. “They have not returned then?”
“No,” said Robin anxiously. “You saw no sign of them?”
“Obviously! But I thought I might have missed them - that they had slipped back by some other way.”
Lady Dunford gave a low moan and looked alarmingly pale, but Georgiana, he noticed with sudden suspicion, looked guilty as much as frightened.
“Miss Dunford!”
She jumped, and turned apprehensive eyes towards him.
“You know something, do you not? Come, you had better tell me! They are playing some prank or other, is that it?”
The whole party was now staring at her.
“I thought you were all mightily excited earlier,” said Robin slowly.
“Oh Georgy!” quavered her Mama, torn between hope and fear, “If you know, tell me where they are!”
She was now thoroughly frightened, as well as worried.
Reflecting that if Louisa had got away safely she would be miles away by now, and Ana should in any case have returned ages ago, she gave in.
The Other Miss Derwent Page 15